Wanting It All
by KarieLuisaSaja
Summary: Kamisagi Saya is out to accomplish her dream- to play pro tennis. However, everyone and everything seems to get in her way. While her mother gave up pro tennis to settle down, Saya is determined to prove that you can in fact want it all and have it all.


Prologue

"Mom, Dad," I looked at my parents, seated on a worn blue coach in front of me. My mother, Kamisagi Aiko, sat looking at me with a somewhat interested expression on her features. Her long brown hair was tied back in a messy bun, and she appeared older than her forty-four years.

My father, Kamisagi Seiichi, sat to her right. He had short dark purple hair that was as unkempt as usual, and his eyes were framed with thick black glasses. His expression was useless; he never showed how he truly felt. Now, he had a look of disinterest pasted on his face, but it was obvious that he should feel otherwise. How often was it, after all, that his daughter spoke so delicately _and_ called a family meeting?

My younger sister, Kamisagi Natsuko, was floating in and out of the room. Though I hadn't specifically invited her to our meeting, she showed a profound interest. _After I share this, it's bound to interest her even more._ Natsuko had long purple hair in the same shade as our father's, and she wore a highly feminine pink bow, much to my dismay. My sister and I were exact opposites.

"What's so important for you to call a family meeting?" It was my mom who spoke, her voice gentle. She could tell that whatever it was, it was important.

For a second, I thought about backing down, and adjourning the meeting right then and running away. It would be easier, so much _easier_, to do that, rather than to face my parents' reactions to what I was about to say. I was about to shatter their expectations of me, in favor of my own, and there was no way they would take that lightly.

Then, the memories of all the planning I had completed for this day rushed up to meet me. All the yen I had in my bank account that I had saved for this, for airfare, meals, an apartment, for everything. The endless hours of research I had done, would I let that be for naught? No, there was no way I could give up here or now.

"Saya, what is it?" Seiichi's curt voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

"Spit it out, dear," Aiko encouraged. I let out a shaky sigh. No matter how nervous I was, it was time. I had to try to make my dreams come true.

"There's a tennis club, y'see, in Germany, that has these absolutely amazing instructors. Lots of semi-pros and pro players have come from this club…" My voice faltered unexpectedly. I hated the truth of it- I was afraid Seiichi would freak out and hit the roof, and that Aiko would side with him.

"So?"

"Well, I-I… Well, I, you need to understand, I…" Words sprung from my mouth, but they made me sound more foolish than I already felt. My cheeks burned with embarrassment. I had really wanted to sound confident and professional when this happened, but that had gone out the window along with my dignity.

"Saya, I don't have all day." Seiichi grumbled. "Just get on with it already."

"Well, this… this club is going to be having a new type of instruction… They're going to be training talented, interested tennis players into professional material." I told them, spitting out the corny catch phrase from their website. Neither of them stopped me, so I continued. I was studying their reactions carefully. "I-I fit the requirements and," I paused, drawing in a deep breath, "I really want to go."

Silence filled the room, and my words remained suspended in the air, hanging over our heads. I shifted uncomfortably on my feet. Though there was a chair behind me, I felt the need to remain standing, and now I was frozen in this position.

"Let me get this straight." Seiichi began slowly, eyeing me curiously. Aiko was frowning deeply next to him. "You want your mother and I to give you money, and come to Germany with you, so you can play at some club."

I cringed- This is exactly what I had feared. The disdain in Seiichi's voice was so strong I wouldn't have been surprised if he disowned me right then.

"Saya, do you really think Aiko and I can just quit our jobs?" He asked, his voice steadily rising, as he rose to his feet. Now, he towered over me, and I was small and defenseless.

"Sei-chan, sit down." Aiko demanded, and then she turned on me. "And what about school? You're not just dropping out." She insisted.

"Mom, do you see a future for me in school?" I inquired. This was one argument that I had played in my mind over and over again. I felt confident I could argue my way through this one. "I'm in the worst high school in all of Japan. I would probably be better off without their diploma. I've seen the school's records; everyone who leaves that place is a disaster." I told her pointedly. It was a bit of an exaggeration, but not by much.

"Saya, it's not the worst school in Japan. That would be the junior high." Aiko responded. "You're exaggerating. It can't be that bad anyways."

"If daily drug busts and people nearly having sex in the hallways doesn't constitute as bad, then I don't know what does." I told her crossly. "You're throwing money away by paying my tuition fees. I've never been the smart one. If I'm going to flunk out as a first year in high school, why bother staying?"

This time it was Aiko who jumped to her feet, alarming Seiichi. "You don't mean to tell me-" Her hand flew up to cover her mouth, wide with shock. I had conveniently forgotten to mention my ever-plummeting grades to my parents. "You're not even-" Her voice failed her again, so I continued.

"At the end of the school year, please allow me to drop out of Akataga High." I gave my parents the deepest bow I could muster- nearly ninety degrees- but neither of them responded for the longest moment.

"You're failing because you don't bother trying." Seiichi had just gotten Aiko to sit down, and she looked and sounded as though she were about to jump up again. "If you actually studied, you could be just as smart as Natsuko!" Aiko's voice was shaking as badly as her two hands were, clenched together as fists in her lap. "You slack off in school and expect us to give you money for tennis?!"

As much as I hated glorifying my little sister for any reason, it was absolutely unavoidable. "Mom, I could never be as smart as Natsuko. She understands school, and I don't. You know how hard I tried in science last year, and I still barely managed to pass at all. I actually have a chance at playing pro tennis. I have no chance in school. Given a choice between the two, tennis will always come out on top. Allow me to follow my dreams." The way I voiced this sounded even more powerful than it had in my mind.

"You're allowed to have preferences, Saya, but-"

"I have no future in academics!" I cried, exasperatedly.

"Okay, say we let you drop out for a moment." Seiichi interjected. It was the first time he had spoken in a while. Aiko turned to face him. "I didn't say we would," He added hastily, seeing the look on his wife's face. "We're just supposing for a moment." He paused. "We do _not_ have the money to send you to this place in England, or whatever."

"Germany," I corrected.

"Fine, Germany. It doesn't matter. Aiko and I aren't quitting our jobs and uprooting our lives to Germany of all places, so you can play tennis." Seiichi told me bluntly. "We don't have the money."

"No, no, I have my own money. I don't need yours."

"What?" Seiichi replied, shocked.

"I, well, y'see, I opened a bank account at the beginning of my third year, so it was about a year and a half ago. All the money I've earned then, from babysitting, my birthdays, and stuff, I deposited there. I didn't want to let you know, in case you wanted me to close the account and forget about going to Germany." I admitted. Seiichi snorted. "This is really important to me." I added.

"We're still not moving, Saya." Seiichi told me flatly.

"I should have enough money to rent an apartment there, and besides, Ayumu-chan and Aunt An are going to be in Germany when those lessons would start. They'd be there for three more months… meaning I'd have time to settle there with them around. Ayumu is there as a one year exchange student. I could stay with them for a while…Aunt An wouldn't mind! She's already offered, in fact." I was nearly pleading now. This seemingly perfect arrangement had been a stroke of amazingly good fortune, something that didn't happen to me often. I had interpreted this as a sign meaning I was in fact supposed to go to Germany.

"Do you think I'm going to send my daughter to a foreign country to play tennis alone? You'd be living _alone_, Saya." She raised a hand to silence me when I went to object. "Even if you were staying with An and Ayumu, you'd never be home at the same time. Take it from someone who has experience with this." My mom's "experience", if you could call it that, was that she could have been a professional tennis player. However, she met Seiichi and decided to settle down instead. I always hated hearing that story when I was younger, because I couldn't understand why Aiko couldn't have both Seiichi and her dream. Her story was enough to keep me away from guys, for fear of falling in love, and losing my tennis dream. I couldn't imagine my life any other way.

"Saya," My father cut in, "You're not old enough to live on your own. You're not even sixteen yet."

"But I will be in three weeks! Just give me a chance. This- No, you saying yes would be the best birthday present you could ever give me." I begged.

"Do you even know German?" Natsuko asked. In the heat of my debate, I had forgotten all about my sister. She was leaning against the door frame across the room. "How can you go to Germany without knowing German?" And because the matter was so amusing to her, she chuckled softly.

"I know someone who does. I'll get him to teach me. I already know a little bit." I snapped, narrowing my eyes at her. _She still bashes my ideas, even after I glorified her before!_ No matter how obvious it was that I was right, Natsuko always argued against me. This case was no exception, especially because my argument was already weak, and easy to tear holes in.

"What do you know?" Natsuko asked.

I hesitated before speaking. I really didn't know all that much. "Dunke means 'thank you'. Guten tag is 'good day'." I replied weakly. Natsuko shook her head.

"That'll get you far." She said sarcastically, and fell silent, allowing our parents to take over.

"There are too many variables in this." Seiichi muttered. "It would never work." He adjusted his glasses, pushing him up the bridge of his nose. He picked up the newspaper that was on the table to his right.

"Wait," I argued, and he looked up from the paper. "All I'm asking for is six months. I have the money, and I'll learn the language. You guys can stay here in Tōkyō. I'm almost sixteen; I can take care of myself." I dropped to my knees. "All I need is for you to sign the form allowing me to drop out of Akataga. That's it." My knees were flat against the ground, similar to how one would sit Japanese style, and I lay my arms and upper body on the ground to bow as low as humanly possible, and beg about as much. _How can they deny this of me? It has so little to do with them!_

Dead silence wrapped around the house. No one seemed to know how to respond. A bud of hope bloomed within me. _Could this mean… that I've won?_

"Saya," Aiko sighed. "You can't just leave school! What if something happens and somehow you get injured? You need something to fall back on!" She said. "I never needed to drop out, and look how far I went."

"Mom, I'm not the same person as you!" I cried. "Stop talking to me like I am!"

"Saya, I never quit school." She repeated. I felt my temper rising. Why couldn't she understand? Kamisagi Aiko, of all people, couldn't understand what it was like to want to play pro tennis! It was a ridiculous thought, yet somehow, it was true. How could this be happening? Wasn't I supposed to go there? How else could I surpass all my limits?

"I know it's hard to understand Saya, but you need an education. I regret never going to college. I thought I was all that. I mean, I was an all-star tennis player. Now, though, it's hard for me to even get a decent job without a college degree." Aiko continued.

Somewhere in my mind, I knew that she was trying to reason with me for my own good, but my anger continued to double. Was she saying that I was going to suffer the same fate as her? How could she even be so cruel as to think that I would let something as worthless as some guy shatter my dream? Didn't she know how dedicated I was? What could I see that she couldn't to make her think such awful things?

"Saya, when I was your age-"

"Stop comparing me to you!" I screamed, interrupting a shocked-looking Aiko. I didn't want to hear another minute this! "I'm not you, and I never will be! I would never let something so stupid as some guy ruin my dreams!" I was nearly crying; I could feel tears burning my eyes as I fought them back. _This isn't part of the plan! I wasn't supposed to lose my temper!_

"If I didn't marry Seiichi, I would have been a rich tennis player. Where would you be, Saya? You wouldn't." Aiko's normally warm, motherly voice was cold and heartless.

"If you didn't marry Seiichi, Grandma wouldn't have disowned you, and maybe we could have had some of her money when she passed on! We wouldn't have to live in this dump and go to a sucky school like Akataga!" I yelled. What was supposed to be a calm debate had turned into an unpredictable riot.

"Saya, you are so naïve." Seiichi stated, his voice rising dangerously for the second time that evening. "You know nothing about how the real world works! And you want to go to Germany?" Seiichi laughed. "Forget it."

"Hit your books and study for once." Aiko snapped. "Think about something besides tennis- There's always a chance you won't make it."

"How can you say that? I'm your _daughter_! I think I deserve some support once in a while!" I replied stubbornly, Aiko's remark piercing me like a thorn.

"The sooner you realize that nothing is free and nothing comes easy, the better off you'll be!" Aiko yelled in return. "Do you have any idea what you sound like? A spoiled rotten, immature bitch! I won't have my daughter behave like that. Get your act together."

"You need to apologize to your mother right now." Seiichi demanded. "You're usually so level-headed, Saya. I'm disappointed in you."

"I'm not apologizing!" I cried indignantly. "I spoke nothing but the truth."

"Go to your damn room! I don't want to see your god-awful face for the rest of the day!" Aiko screamed. "You'd better forget all about Germany. You're an ungrateful, self-centered, greedy bitch. I have nothing else to say to you." With that, Aiko stormed out of the room, and down the hall to where our bedrooms were.

"You heard your mother. Go to your room. If you're going to be this immature, we'll treat you like the baby you are. You've done nothing more than prove to us today that you are still a child." Seiichi stated, and he returned to reading the paper as though nothing had happened. "Now." He added when I didn't move.

Slowly, I left my spot in the living room and trudged down the hall. My anger had already been replaced with regret. _I don't think I'm all the things Mom said I am, even when I snapped at them. They know I appreciate that they're doing their best with the little money their day jobs make. Sometimes, though, their best just isn't enough! I can't help that! It would cost them virtually nothing to get me there, and they wouldn't have to pay for my regular lessons at Seichundai Tennis Club here when I'm gone. It was a win-win situation for them!_

I nearly laughed aloud. _Who am I kidding? I obviously must be a total loser of a daughter… They ought to just disown me and let me die on the streets. Obviously they don't care all that much. All I do is spend their stupid money and I'm obviously spoiled. My bad, I didn't realize that a little ambition made me spoiled and greedy._

I opened the door to my room, and in a flash of anger, slammed it behind me.

"Saya!" Seiichi called as a warning from the living room. "Natsuko," He continued warningly a moment later, "Stop laughing. Why don't you go finish your homework?"

"Okay Papa!" She replied, and I could hear her skipping down the hallway. She was a first year at Akataga Junior High. Why wouldn't she have agreed with me about school sucking? There was no way that someone even as socially stupid as Natsuko couldn't see what was happening around her. The kids within the school were bad, and so was the neighborhood around the school, which we lived in. Was it possible that Natsuko was that oblivious? No, it was just more proof that Natsuko would always oppose me, no matter what the cost was to her.

When she skipped by my room, since hers was all the way at the end of the hallway and mine was the second on the left, she stopped and opened the door a crack. She was grinning maniacally. "Mama and Papa treating you like a misbehaving kid? No German tennis? You miserable? I never thought a day as wonderful as this one would ever come!" Natsuko closed the door quickly and continued down the hall. A moment later, my English dictionary crashed into the door with a loud "thud". _If only I threw that a second earlier…_

It took a moment for the reality of everything to hit home, and desperation followed almost immediately. _This blows! I can't believe my whole plan failed…! I thought it was perfect… Now what? Back to the old grind? I'm sure as hell not giving up._ The fact that I swore, even if only in my mind, said a lot about how upset I was. I never swore. _What am I supposed to do? Why is everyone and everything against me?_

_I'm not going to the tennis club in Germany._ I picked up the August issue of _Pro Tennis Monthly_, flipping to the feature article. It was easy to find since I had bent the corner of the page for easy reference. The article was about a certain German tennis club, the revolutionary lessons they were going to be offering, and a certain famous teenager who was going to be going there, Tezuka Kunimitsu. The fact that Tezuka, an aspiring pro, was going showed me that this club was no fake. Though I didn't like him, I did admire his ability. Seeing that he was going had given me hope that another Japanese teenager with the same goal could do so as well.

As for not really liking Tezuka, personally, I believed him to be just another rich boy whose money bought him whatever he wanted. I had a certain amount of disdain for him. He was always taking the spotlight off of my favorite players, especially Echizen Nanjirō, who I had always wanted to meet. I still believe him to be one the most talented players ever, despite what everyone else had to say. Ever since the Echizen family had moved back to Japan, I had wanted so badly to meet them.

Anyways, the article about the club had been a goldmine in my research. Most of the websites about the club were in German, and my little knowledge, which spanned about five phrases, didn't help much.

Seeing the familiar article and remembering the hope I once had overwhelmed me. I was feeling really depressed. My tears finally won their battle, and for the first time in a long while, I cried.

_This is the worst day ever._

_A/N: Hey everybody... it's been a long time, hasn't it? I actually just randomly found this and edited it... It was something I had written about a year ago. But I want to add this just as a note: This may be under the Prince of Tennis category, but it's mostly about Saya-chan and her life, and not so much about Seigaku, etc. More characters will appear as we go on, but it's not completely focused on the Prince of Tennis. Also, Saya is one month younger than Tezuka, so all of the 9th graders in the manga are in their first year of high school, just in case anyone was wondering. All names are given family name first, then first name, just in case that wasn't clear. So... I guess that's all I have to say... But please, R&R! ~KLS, aka Ace =]_


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